San Do Kuen Martial Arts

Now that the martial arts have been in the West for about 40 years, the focus is now on the competitive effectiveness of martial arts technique – as in MMA, UFC, Kickboxing etc.  The most popular martial arts in America are not based on self-defense and personal development – they are based on winning.  Because we have shifted the focus of training from self-defense to winning a full-contact fight in a ring, Americans have created a huge disconnect between the movements we practice and the intention with which we practice them. This gap in understanding causes a lack of appreciation for traditional values in exchange for six pack abs and a mean arm bar.

Boxers, kickboxers or MMA fighters train for one purpose:  to hurt or knock out  the opponent and win the fight, all philosophy aside.  There is nothing morally wrong with that kind of intent in training.  After all, in these kinds of sports, that is the game they play.  This competitive mindset is very different from the Eastern way of conceptualizing martial arts training.

Training For Personal Development

There is a drastic difference between training hard to win a ring fight and training hard because the process of conditioning and repetition refines discipline, increases focus, develops fitness, creates determination, sharpens the will, and clears the mind.

• The Eastern idea of martial arts practice is that the true opponent lives within us – it is our own shortcomings and flaws that we battle during training.

Therefore, the process of training is not focused on our opponent and what he might do, but on ourselves.  In a competitive society, we are good at sizing up the competition and, all the while, we remain unaware of ourselves.  This is why many people have a hard time learning martial arts that are not focused on competition.  Not to mention that there is very little glory in becoming a better person.

Martial arts training doesn’t fit our American equation reasoning model.  We have trouble sticking with the training program in the long-term because once we have our technique memorized we think “I’ve got that one, so what’s next?”

• The problem is that we only see the training in terms of the technique itself instead of seeing the technique and the training as tools to refine ourselves.